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Usually when someone from the government shows up to do an audit, it isn’t a good sign, but this week at the Perry Lecompton Thriftway, the people with clipboards were invited.

The Kansas Corporation Commission is doing energy audits of 16 rural grocery stores this fiscal year to figure out what equipment is using the most energy, and how the stores can maximize efficiency. Mark Balocca, one of three owners of the Thriftway, said they applied to be one of the inspected stores at the suggestion of their bank.

Balocca said the results will give them “solid evidence” to show their bank if investing in energy efficiency measures will pay off through lower utility bills. He said he was pleased the KCC was offering the audits for free.

“You’re always looking to save money if possible,” he said. “It’s not often you get a service for free.”

Three auditors from the KCC’s energy division inspected the electric features and cooling equipment in the store and how well it kept hot and cold areas separated in a multi-hour process Wednesday morning.

Preston Miller, a technical analyst at KCC, started by counting light fixtures and checking out how many switches control the lights. He also took pictures of the fluorescent tubes so he could use them as references and determine if more efficient options were available.

Many of the lights were older models, though a few tubes had been replaced with a modern version that produces as much light with one-third less energy, Miller said. Replacing old lights with the new ones typically pays off in two or three years, he said.

While Miller checked out the lighting, technical analyst Stuart Yoho was looking at the compressors that keep the freezers and refrigerated cases at temperature. Compressors are expensive, he said, so it might make sense to focus on modifying cases to keep cold air in instead of replacing the compressors if cooling is taking more energy than the industry average.

“We try to look at things that are using an inordinate share of energy,” he said. “Of course, in a grocery store, a lot of it is refrigeration.”

Trayce Heidner, manager of residential and small business programs at KCC, also looked at temperature, but she focused on how heat and cold could leak to the outdoors or other parts of the store, raising bills for climate control.

Ryan Freed, director of the KCC’s energy division, said all of that information goes into recommendations about what energy improvements a store can make, and how long it would take them to pay off.

“When we come back, we can say making an improvement here will save you this much money,” he said.

The stores getting the energy audits aren’t required to adopt any of the recommendations, though KCC will help them to apply for grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program if they decide they want to, Freed said.

Kim Christiansen, executive director of the KCC, said the energy division also has done energy audits or contracted to have them done on government buildings in Kansas, saving taxpayers $20 million over the years. Much of what the KCC does focuses on rate cases and regulating utilities, but the staff also work on education and outreach, she said.

Though private firms offer energy audits in the state, those can be out of reach for small businesses, Christiansen said.

“Imagine a small rural grocery store trying to pay $1,000, $2,000 for an energy audit,” she said. “I’m really proud of this initiative.”

David Procter, director of Kansas State University’s Center for Engagement and Community Development, said the center got a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study what challenges rural grocery stores face in 2008. The owners surveyed said operating costs were their second-biggest concern (behind competition from big-box stores), and energy costs were the largest operating expense. Energy costs also came up at grocery summits in 2010 and 2012 because grocery stores typically have slender profit margins, he said.

“What we found is that energy costs are a huge piece of what they’re struggling with,” he said. “Anything the stores can do to reduce their operating costs helps their bottom line.”

Lenders and agencies like USDA want to see an energy audit before making loans or grants to pay for energy efficiency upgrades, Procter said. KCC contacted them a few years ago about how energy issues affected small businesses and asked which stores might benefit from an audit, he said.

“We thought it was great that they were interested,” he said.

Grocery stores are important in rural communities for multiple reasons, Procter said. They provide jobs and tax revenue in small communities, and are a source of healthy food for people who aren’t able to drive to a grocery store in a bigger town, he said.

People moving into an area also tend to choose a town with a grocery store, both for convenience and because a store is a sign of a community’s “vitality,” Procter said.